Recently described as “The Mamas & The Papas meets Mumford & Sons”, apples… i’m home are a pop/folk four piece based in West London. They began life in 2007 as a song-writing duo in the Scottish town of Ayr. Having since re-located to Glasgow and Gloucestershire, they can now be found writing and performing their original brand of catchy, melody-driven songs across the London folk scene.

Glasgow Arts Council funded their first recording, at the prestigious Park Lane studios (Paolo Nutini, The Proclaimers) and, following a number of further demos, the band recorded their latest EP, ‘Last Week’, in 2012. To support the release, they set off on their first UK tour, playing gigs from the south of England to the north coast of Scotland in August that year.

Solid structures and layered harmonies remain features of their music and, having received positive reactions since expanding to a four-piece, the band are now focusing on gigs across the capital at venues such as The Garage & The Borderline as well as Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival.

Nina Rubesa was born in a small town in Switzerland before moving to Canada, the USA, Belgium and the UK. She spent two years in Leicester doing a Foundation degree in acting before finally moving to the bustling city of London town. Nina has recently been played on Tom Robinson’s BBC 6 music show and featured on the music blog “Music Muso” who have helped many artists in their infancy stage such as Tom Odell and Ben Howard.

Writing has been in her blood since the very beginning. What started out as stories and poems eventually led to the craft of songwriting. The power of words has always been a fascination and inspiration throughout her roller coaster ride of a childhood.

This year Nina plans to release her first Ep followed by a UK tour. She is influenced by Bob Dylan’s songwriting, Katie Melua’s soul, Matt Andersen’s honesty and P!nk’s dynamic sound. Hopefully the Ep will capture all of this.

Amy Jane Bennett is a singer-songwriter based in London. She been gigging locally for a few years now. She plays an acoustic set full of originals (with a few cheeky covers thrown in) written about life, love, friends and even Amy Winehouse.

Although he was born in London, Joe Jury, 18, grew up in the Cotswold. At school acting and singing were the only things that got him out of bed in the morning – literally. Joe loved music from a very early age, listening to all types of music from hard grunge rock to African culture.

At 12 he became lead singer of a schoolboy rock band, Kamikaze Union, who became very successful locally playing festivals and gigs all over the N. Cotswold’s. But at 15 Joe started writing his own songs and as his own style developed he decided to branch out on his own as a singer/songwriter.

Joe’s influences started with the folk legends and that’s what initially got him into song writing. Joe says – “Dylan and Neil Young were the first singer/songwriters I listened to, so obviously my music started off with a folky edge to it, I’ve always been a fan of folk music.”

When he started to write his own material Joe started listening to music in a more detailed way, listening very carefully to the structure of lyrics and catchy melodies so that he could find inspiration for his own music.

“The first contemporary singer/songwriter that I listened, and I still listen to his music religiously, is John Mayer. I have every single album of his and he’s a huge inspiration to me. It’s a dream of mine to see him live one day or even meet him.” Favourite track – Gravity.

“I feel exactly the same about a recent artist called Ben Howard. The way he plays that guitar and manages to write songs like he does baffles me, he amazes me with every song that he writes. Perfection in my eyes.”
Favourite track – Three Tree Town

In summer 2010, Joe won an open mic talent contest and opened the Shipston Proms, in Shipston-On-Stour, Warwickshire. In the following 18 months Joe wrote over 50 new songs and played dozens of gigs and festivals all over London and the South of England, including opening the Music At The Crossroads Festival in the summer of 2011 and in the same year appearing at the Barn On The Farm Festival along with Ben Howard, Ed Sheeran and Frank Turner.

At the age of 17, encouraged by this local success, Joe left college, and the Cotswold, in the Autumn of 2011 and moved to London. “Moving to London was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made, I literally gave up everything to do this. So many people told me I was too young and it was stupid of me to do it, turns out it was the best decision of my life and I’ve never been happier. I may be sleeping on peoples couches for now but who knows what will happen over the next couple of years, all I know now is its going very well and I’m enjoying every minute.”

He is now never been more determined to pursue his dream of a career as a singer and songwriter.